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September 14, 2012

Victoria's (belated) Birth Story

I had a good laugh sharing details of Victoria's birth story with a friend the other day. So, in honor of her 17 month birthday today, here is Victoria's birth story. Feel free to giggle as well. :)

Newborn Victoria. Tiny but tough.

Victoria was born after just over 2 hours of labor. Over an hour of that was all pushing.

Matthew didn't understand my urgency in leaving the house. (Let me pack my power cord. Where is the camera? I want to shower first...) Labor with Bertrand was 15.5 hours, so Matt thought he would have time to kill.

But, within 30 minutes of arriving at the hospital I was past 10cm and Victoria was on her way.

(My water exploded on the admitting nurse as she was taking my vitals, and she was soaked from the waist down.)

What we didn't discover until almost an hour later at delivery, was that she was in the posterior position (hence the back labor pains and my subsequent fractured coccyx) and her umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck. The shortened cord was acting as a bungee, sucking her back after every push.

Regardless, Victoria made it out. She was born a little "unicorn", her skull shaped into a massive spike. She was also born with 3 skin tags on her right ear.

Within hours, her skull was reforming before our eyes. The skin tags, however, were very much there.

When Matthew took Victoria back with the nurse and pediatrician for her first bath, I immediately started googling "ear skin tags" on my phone. Search results returned possible hearing loss, kidney malformations, and mental retardation. I kid you not.

I mentally checked each off:

Hearing loss - Not a problem. I know some sign language and already have a connection with Utah School for the deaf and blind.

Kidney malformations - Not a problem. I know a great renal specialist here, a good surgeon, and plenty of moms of kids with renal issues.

Mental retardation - Not a problem. I have some experience with cognitive and physical delays. ;)

Phew! I was totally relieved! I knew we could handle these things.

Matthew walks back in with Victoria--sporting a little black string tied around one of her ear tags. He cheerfully informs me that the pediatrician gave Victoria a clean bill of health. Ear tags (and even extra fingers) are totally common. She just needs a simple plastic surgery when she is 6 months-old to remove 2 of the tags. The 3rd tied skin tag will fall off on it's own.

Wha?!?!

And then Matthew's mom walks in and, upon seeing Victoria, the proud grandma tells us, "I had the same skin tags on the same ear!"

Now that's when I started to freak out. My daughter could actually be normal?! I have NO IDEA what to do!

Haha! As it turns out, we're figuring things out just fine. ;)

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6 month-old baby Victoria. Perfection in pumpkin form.

We took Victoria to see the plastic surgeon when she was a few weeks old. We scheduled a date for surgery shortly after her 6-month birthday.

But then a few weeks before her 6 month birthday, we cancelled it.

Later in life, when she's old enough to make the choice herself, we'll support her if she choses to undergo the surgery.

But right now, whenever we look at Victoria, all we see is perfection.

3 comments
:

Oh, that's fantastic. It's like raising an army and then discovering that your opponent is gerbil. (And I would have been googling them as well). Victoria is quite the gorgeous little pumpkin and if she goes through an artsy phase she's going to love having ears that are just a little bit different (same reason I'm not too fussed about Veronica's pointed ears; when she's sixteen she'll love it).

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